JMRI: DecoderPro 3.4.0 – Program model railroad DCC decoders. (Free)

JMRI: DecoderPro is an essential utility for model railroad enthusiasts.

Modern DCC decoders are complicated beasts to program. The simple idea of “put the address in CV01″ doesn’t cope well when you program complicated functions using combinations of bit patterns. A friendlier interface is needed. There are programs that provide better ways of programming specific decoders. Unfortunately, they are limited to specific types of computers, and only their authors can customize them for new types of decoders.

The DecoderPro symbolic programmer is meant to improve this. It is configured using text files, so that it can be adapted to additional decoder types easily. It talks to the decoders using the JMRI programming interface, so that it can run on any computer and layout hardware that JMRI has been ported to. It’s freely available for download. And since the code is available via open source, if you want to improve on it you can.

Version 3.4.0:

Warnings:

This release requires Java 1.6 or later.
This release no longer supports the Digitrax MS100 on any computer. If you have an MS100 working with an earlier release, please stay with that release. You should plan on updating to a better LocoNet interface before updating to this or any later release.
For users of JMRI on Microsoft Windows, the installer will now request Administrator permissions if the user running the installation is not a member of the administrators group. Users of Windows Vista or later may receive a UAC (User Account Control) pop-up message when installing.
The TCS decoder definitions have been extensively reworked. You’ll notice that they list different families and the models are organized differently. This is to make the automatic identification work much better. Please let us know if you encounter any problems with this.
This release and all future releases will not support the NCE serial interface running at 19,200 baud. Use the default 9,600 baud instead.
The decoder definition files have been extensively reworked for this release series to reduce their size and allow them to be translated to other languages. Please keep an eye out for any inadvertent changes to the definitions that might have been introduced.

Enhancements:

You can now control loads for trains and tracks by the type of car. Previously only the load name was available. Now you can control by load names, and by car type and load name.
You can now decide if you want indenting when looking at build reports with a text editor.
New feature, the program will now generate custom car loads for car’s departing staging and also terminating into staging. See Edit Staging track, and select “Generate custom loads for any staging track”. You can control which loads will be generated by adjusting the terminal track and which loads the train departing staging can carry.
You can now edit a car’s move count, wait, built, owner, RFID, and value fields directly in the Cars window.
Improved the car wait feature. Now the car’s wait will only decrement when the train can actually service the car, not just passing through.
You can now adjust the tab length if you’re using the tabular format for your manifests and switch lists. See in the Manifest Print Options under Tools.
The conductor window will now show locomotives assigned to the train.
Made some improvements in the print locations tool with regards to schedules.
More build report formating and readability improvements.
A new feature called the “Yardmaster” window. Now you can now get a switch list for a location similar to the “Conductor” window. In the “Locations” window, there’s now a button called “Yardmaster” for each location. The Yardmaster window has a combobox containing a list of trains that have work for the location. Only built trains with work are available.
You can now independently control the build report font size. If using the text editor, use a smaller font size if you want to increase the amount of text per line.
Some additional work integrating the Manifest Creator. There are now run buttons on the trains window to activate the program. Select “Generate csv Manifest” in the build options window to enable these new buttons. You can also edit the file name of the Manifest Creator, see under Trains->Tools “Setup Excel Program”.
In the “Set Car” window, the destination for the car is now by default disabled. You should be using the “Final Destination” when manually setting a destination for the car. If you need the destination field enabled, under Tools, is an option to enable it.
New feature, the last date and time a car was assigned to a train. Note that the last time and date is set when the car is delivered, or if the car was reset from a built train. This should help you find “stuck” cars if you have any.
Improved car routing when the car has custom loads and/or final destinations. Thanks to Dave Cochrun and Inspector Dave in helping us improve this part of the program.
You can now use the escape key to close any active operations window. All operations and other jmri windows can also be closed by using the control-W key.
Yardmaster and Conductor windows now show utility cars by their quantity rather than by road and number. Both windows now support the “Sort by Track” option. The Yardmaster window now uses the “Switch List” format rather than the “Manifest” format.
You can now control which loads are allowed to ship from staging.
Improved the routing code to search for several interchange or yard tracks at a location when trying to find a route to a spur. The previous version didn’t try find other tracks at a location when the first track tried was full. Thanks to Jim Elbe for finding and reporting this issue.
Made some improvements to the build report with regards to car routing. Also improved how the program deals with routing a car into staging and which tracks in staging are appropriate.
Improved on how the program deals with “car type and custom load pairs” for locations and trains when a car type is changed or deleted. Thanks to Inspector Dave for reporting this issue.
Improved how the program deals with custom loads and kernels. Now all cars in a kernel will get the same custom load if the the custom load is valid for the car.
Improved the dialog window for a route comment. Now you can easily enter several lines of text.
The Locations window now shows the track types for each location.
New feature, for classification/interchange tracks you can now restrict which destinations the track will serve. See “Track Destination” under Tools in the edit track window.
You can now tell the router if you want it to consider yard tracks when routing a car. Deselect “Enable Car Routing via Yards” in the Option window under Tools in the settings window if you don’t want to use yards when routing cars. The yards are still available for other purposes.
Added the ability to print out a car’s final destination and return when empty to the car roster print function.
In the “Set Car” window, the return when empty and final destination fields are now disabled if you turn routing off. Both features require routing to work properly.
The program no longer shows an error in the train build report if you delete a schedule item for a car that was assigned that item in match mode. The program now tries to find another match for the car, and will report a problem if there isn’t a match available.
The program now shows the train, departure and arrival locations if the prompt to or from staging is selected.

Fixes:

Fixed a line formatting problem with manifest and switch lists that have carriage returns embedded in the comments.
Fixed a problem when swapping cabooses in a train’s route. The code didn’t check to see if there was the correct number of moves available in the route to do the swap. Thanks to Quintin Foster for finding and reporting this problem.
Fixed a problem with a train’s departure time when there was back to back locations using the same name. Thanks to Bob Byck for finding and reporting this issue.
Fixed an issue where the “Add” or “Edit” Track window size would revert to its previous size while modifying the track checkboxes.
Fixed a problem where the program wouldn’t correctly select a staging track when exclude train or route was used.
Fixed an issue where the program would route too many cars to a spur with a schedule.
Fixed a problem where a car with a custom load in route would lose which schedule item the car had been assigned when the train carrying the car was reset.
Fixed a problem where a switcher would ignore a car’s wait count. Thanks to Joe Mattick for finding and reporting this issue.
Fixed a bug where a train wouldn’t build after deleting a car or loco type that the train used to carry.
Fixed a bug in the cvs files when user had commas in their comments.
Fixed a bug where a train wouldn’t terminate if the first location in a route was deleted in a built train.

View the complete release notes.

OS X 10.4 or later
Java 1.6 or later
An available serial port, either on the computer itself, or via a USB adapter. For more information, please see the download pages.
A serial connection to your DCC system. For more information, please see the DCC hardware pages.

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